SingStar Legends - PS2 - Review

Back in 2006, SingStar –
that addictive karaoke title from Sony’s London development studio – released
Legends expansion in the UK featuring a range of older and newer classic songs.
From songs like Aretha Franklin’s Respect to Nirvana’s Smells like Teen Spirit,
the compilation had some depth, though it was just a bit skimpy on what could
have been.

Well, Legends is gearing up
for release this month in the US and while that UK song list has been adjusted,
what is left is a song list that just feels a little hollow, for lack of a
better word. Some of the songs on that UK list have been on other US releases,
so are not included in this list. Realize that there have been about 17 titles
in the franchise in all (US and overseas’ releases) and Sony is not in the habit
of including the same tracks on a number of the releases.

If you
don’t know what SingStar is … here is the overview:

It is a
karaoke game that requires microphones (not included with the expansion – they
came with the original release), and uses three visual elements for the game
content. The visuals are comprised of the music video from the song being
played, the lyrics along the bottom of the screen and a pitch meter cutting
through the middle of the screen. The goal is to sing the songs, either in the
shortened forms (with bigger points accumulating over the time frame) or over
the course of the full song, hit the notes, get a score and try to ride the top
of the charts. There is no online play, but there are party games in which you
can battle another singer with the game’s two microphones (which came with the
original release, what is being looked at here is an expansion), or sing as a
team with the goal – again – being to outscore your opponents. There are three
difficulty levels, which essentially means the level of forgiveness the game
will give you as you sing. Being a bit off is fine at the Easy level, but you
have to be almost dead on at the hard level to score well. The multiplayer, or
Party, mode has several games from the head-to-head Battle mode, to Pass the Mic
(teams undertake different singing challenges in turns) . The different
challenges include singing medleys for scores or to keep the meter above a
specific bar by hitting the notes.

So what does Legends add to
the stable of titles? Here is the new song list:

Barry White - You're the
First, The Last, My Everything

Biz Markie - Just A Friend

Black Sabbath - Paranoid

Bonnie
Tyler - Total Eclipse Of The Heart

David Bowie - Life On Mars?

Dusty Springfield - Son Of A
Preacher Man

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis
Armstrong - Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

Elton John - I'm Still
Standing

Elvis Presley - Blue Suede
Shoes

Grateful Dead - Touch Of Grey

The Jackson 5 - I Want You
Back

James
Brown - I Got You (I Feel Good)

John
Lennon - Imagine

Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire

Joy Division - Love Will Tear
Us Apart

Madonna - Papa Don't Preach

Marvin Gaye - What's Goin On?

Michael McDonald - I Keep
Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)

The Monkees - Daydream
Believer

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen
Spirit

Patsy Cline - Crazy

The Police - Roxanne

Ray Charles - Hit The Road
Jack

The Righteous Brothers -
Unchained Melody

The
Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil

Sam Cooke - Wonderful World

The Smiths - This Charming
Man

Tina Turner - Whats Love Got
To Do With It?

Tom Jones - What's New
Pussycat

Whitney Houston - I'm Your
Baby Tonight

As is evident, this list
dips back into the 60s up through the 80s, but while some of the songs are good,
are they karaoke worthy? Probably to a certain segment of the population, but if
you think rock ‘n roll when you think Legends, and don’t understand the intent
of this list, you may be disappointed. However, when you think Legends, and
think David Bowie, does Life on Mars? pop into you head immediately? Ray Charles
had better songs than Hit the Road Jack (though this is a good tune), as did The
Monkees. What about iconic bands like ABBA? And no disrespect to the fine work
of Michael McDonald, but he hardly belongs on this list of artists like the Sam
Cooke, John Lennon, and so on (but then neither does Joy Division or Biz Markie). The licenses may not have been
available, but this just seems to come up a touch short. Once again, SingStar
teases with the names of the artists, but fails to deliver the top songs
associated with that group. That makes this version just a bit lackluster.

Legend is not a bad song
list, by any stretch of the imagination; it is just not … well … legendary.
Still, if you want to draw in an older karaoke crowd, just pop this into the PS2
and watch their faces light up with that whole familiarity visage when they've seen
Patsy Cline, Tom Jones, Elvis and even Barry White.

Review Scoring Details for SingStar Legends

Gameplay: 7.0Same old gameplay,
same old formats.

Graphics: 6.8Some of these songs
released well before there were videos and as such, you get a montage of
pictures of the artist.

Sound: 7.4A good selection of
songs, but many – even when you play the whole song – are very short. Kudos,
though, to giving the older tunes such a rich sound.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 7.0Same games,
different song list.

Multiplayer: 7.3While some of these
songs are not meant for duets and such, the dev team did a decent job of
splitting them up for battles. The only thing really working against them is the
length of the songs.

Overall: 7.0The songs are decent
but just are not that long and the idea of the artists being ‘legendary’ is fine
in most regards, but some of the songs selected to highlight that status hardly
live up to the title.